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Episode61
Star Groupies and Astropolitics We started off with Kiwi deep in the bowels of the Central Repository aboard the Ark, searching for information on the location of the Hall of Oorta. Horning in on Pete's Science (Archaeology) supremacy, Kiwi rolled a Natural 20 on his DF Check, discovering not only the wherabouts of the Hall, but also 13 other possibly significant sites! The Location Data was 24,000 years out of date however, and would require an Astro-Navgation Block to unscramble. Meanwhile, back on the other side of the Galaxy, Pete and Joe were Diagnosing Oros' Issues, with Joe uncovering some sort of Nano-Infection / Tracking Beacon in his system, while Pete moved the Tenacious Hound into the Gravity Well of a nearby moon, hoping to take advantage of Oros' special FTL abillity if the Bounty Hunters returned. Sure enough, they soon finished up Salvaging the debris that they had blasted off of the Hound and powered up their FTL, heading straight for us! But before the Bounty Hunters had drawn close enough for us to Jump past them, they were attacked by a number of heavily cloaked ships. It was the L'aguardia, apparently more concerned about Oros' safety while there were Light Fisters aboard. In an effort to avoid unnecessary violence Pete made radio contact with Rhino-Bitch, but despite multiple Beguiles in the high single digits he was unable to convince her to surrender! The L'agaurdia made short work of her wingmen, then turned their attention on her. As threatened, she overloaded her missile core, (destroying all the ships, Salvage and one of our Bodyguards), rather than letting herself be captured. With the Bounty Hunters out of the way, we returned to the scene of the earlier Battle, and were able to Salvage much of our lost equipment, including the Fighter-Sized Cargo-Tree Gate. Apparently they had only gone after any type of Nano or Field Project Items, (which unfortunately included the Hanger's Anti-Reaver and Tractor Beam Field Generators, as well as the Quantum Rift Inhibitor!). Firing up the Double FTL, the Hound set course for Veilos, and Sproo'seeree was again pressed in to service opening yet another Tree Gate back there as well. With Crash in tow, Pete returned to commence his research on the Star, while Joe remained behind to baby-sit Oros and T-Dog on the journey home. As soon as the Vielos Tree Gate had cooled down, Oz had it warmed up again as he headed to Ekenwynne to try to talk sense into Uxia. With yet another well timed Natural 20 on the night, he persuades Uxia with a Critical Beguile, and spends multiple 4 Hour Blocks having make-up sex and then a family day at the beach while trying to come up with a plan to somehow leverage the Progenitors as some sort of power play against the Hubertus to get their daughter back. Back on Veilos, Crash crunched the numbers overnight to decode the location of the Hall of Oorta Astro-Navigation Data, determining that it is buried beneath the lowest levels of Huburtus Prime (!). The weaves of fate are momentarily revealed here with Oz's urgency to get the Hubertus family onboard suddenly taking on more significance than just saving his daughter. Kiwi and Pete spend the morning trying to get acquainted with the Star of the Progenitors, with Kiwi and his Benny having success, but Pete giving up in frustration and getting distracted by his Third Tier Upgrades to his various Ammo-Presses. Eventually Oz returned to Veilos, checked in with Pete and Kiwi, (who were in various states of Star-Orgasm and not going anywhere), then proceeded to the Tether-Beacon Station to try and convince the Progenitors to go along with his scheme to enlist them in a public spectacle that would force the Hubertus back to the bargaining table. Without the other party members around and his daughter's life on the line, Oz felt compelled to take action even if it meant making major policy decisions with significant consequences in the galacti-political arena. When he arrived, Ophilious and Raydin were arguing about whether or not Yala was going to be able to be brought back from her stasis coma. They also mentioned that maybe it was best if she didn't recover since she could be harsh on the lesser life-forms. Another consideration is her hatred for Zargax which could get in the way of bringing the Shadow reavers and Progenitors together. Curiously, both Yala and Raydin had fresh wounds which was a sore point when mentioned later in conversation. Oz pretended not to hear the exchange and plowed ahead with his plan, attempting to convince Raydin to take out his frustration on the zombies. Ophilious saw this as an excuse to get Raydin out of his hair, and suggested he and Bartak go to get the lay of the land; they were tasked with scouting both 'allies and enemies'. They also asked that the Star be brought to the station to heal their injured. Oz passed the message along to the Star-Groupies back on Veilos but he didn't think it likely they would listen. He had other priorities so didn't press the matter. He also felt it was possible that they would decide to keep it which would be inconvenient. Oz thought to remember to ask the Progenitors if they wanted to retrieve their ships, suggesting that we could return to the Lighthouse through the Tree-Gate, collapse the star, build a Ship Gate, fly the Ships back through, (with the Mini-Tree-Gate and the Squirrels), then destroy the Ship Gate behind us. It turned out they couldn't actually make Gates, and were impressed that we had a Master-Gater in the Party. Oz found himself apologizing that the Master Gater was Pete and not Joe. They seemed disappointed... for obvious reasons. While Oz was busy making plans with the Pro-Jos, Pete and Kiwi remained locked deep inside the Ultra-Secure VDF Bunker with the Star. Re-focusing his concentration, Pete gave the SotP another try, this time starting to pick it up a bit, while of course in the meantime the Kiwika and his Benny mastered the Star-Attunement, learning the "Orb-Lore" Skill. With much fanfare, Oz traveled to Kovinus with Raiden and Bartok. Things got a little dicey but with some epic-diplomacy he convinced the Progenitors and Alliance/Kovinus officials to put aside their differences and form a special Progenitor task-force. With both groups operating under a framework of understanding he next wanted to be sure that things would run smoothly without him so he spent a block with the Progenitor's teaching them Zombie essentials while carefully assessing their own tactics. He was relieved to find that they place a high value on life and were not planning to glass planets in some kind of 'final solution'. Pressing matters on the other side of the Galaxy needed Oz so he asked McGrruff to stand in temporarily as the liaison between Alliance and Progenitor. Confident that things were off to a good start Oz then stepped back through the gate to Veilos. After a very busy 48 hours involving visits to four different star systems and no sleep Oz finally went to bed. In the Dream World he met up with Uxia and shared the latest news. Suprisingly, Uxia knew nothing of the Progenitors arrival. Somehow news of it on the Ultranet had been blocked beyond Kovinus. This was very disturbing and Uxia agreed to investigate it. She also passed along the news of Hubertus' big announcement; they had developed some kind of 'brain-washing' process which was turning rebellious slaves into obedient but mindless servants. Careful analysis of the propaganda showed that those who went through the process had marks on their temples as if they had been injected with something. It also revealed that the Hubertus were not restricting their usage of the process to rebellious zones. They were using it on peaceful slaves as well! Things were moving nicely toward sexy-time when suddenly the sound of slow, ironic clapping interrupted the loving couple. Lady Aglea appeared (it seemed very much like she had been waiting for Oz to return to the dream) and did her best to further provoke Uxia and Oz. She pulled out a fresh set of eyeballs and stated that they were Xena's but then really tried to drive her message home by implying that "while eyeballs could grow back, innocence would not". On hearing this Uxia lost it and did a head fake with an uppercut (this logger might be embellishing) aimed at Aglea who quickly vanished. To Oz's puzzlement, the eyes she left behind on the dream-floor were the wrong color. Aglea would know that we would know that. What is she up to? Something is seriously weird with the whole Hubertus situation. They are actively provoking Oz and Uxia while also zombifying their slave population (albeit living zombies). Aglea always seemed calculating but this seems way over the top. Perhaps she become desperate for some unknown reason? Perhaps she's under the influence of Reavers (or Shadow Reavers)? Either way, Oz is done underestimating her. Shit has just gotten real. With all this dream travel and Aglea's ability to drop in unannounced it finally occurred to Oz that he needs to take his Dream Walking to the next level. He's heard that its possible to trap people in the dream which would be a great way to stop Aglea from fleeing next time she pays a visit. Also, if he could use the privacy screens that the Treewee elders use that would be wonderful. To that end, he spoke with Grey Nut's apprentice about training and plans to visit her the next night to begin (if she's willing). Kiwi tried to help Pete do level 28 Weapon Upgrades using his new found 'Knowledge of the Ancients' Star Power, but failed his Check, then Pete went into Sleep Deprivation to try & finish off his Orb-Lore Training, but failed that Check. For the record, Kiwi did help Oz build a lvl 19 Mystic Skin item earlier so he was being uncharacteristically helpful. In order to reduce the gate-Load on Sproo'seeree, Kiwi recruited a new Gate-Squirrel for the Hound from among Grey-Nut's Apprentices; Scar-Flap the Alchemist. Just don't ask where the scar or the flap are! Observations on Progenitors: *They don't like being far from the Star. Even speaking about 'the voice' makes them uncomfortable *They are sensitive about their 24,000 years in hell-stasis. Don't mention it *They appear to draw strength from the adulation of the 'lower races' *They are currently depleted with scarce resources and know it. Working with us is a necessity that may not last forever *They are not omnipotent. While very powerful, they need their tech as much as we do. For example, they need Gates to travel. *They don't know how to build Gates *They don't know how to talk to Shadow-Progenitors *Yala is trouble waiting to happen - she has strong convictions, especially with 'Zargax the Defiler' *Raydin is a hot head and dangerous *Ophilius seems like their natural leader For the record we had at least 7 blocks off-time (maybe 8). 33 Generic 11 Academic for the Loggers . Back to Space Junk LogCategory:Space Junk